All Aboard the Angst Train
by StoriesAreMagic
Summary: From being betrayed to feeling fearful, the ninja face painful moments. (A collection of seven one-shots for Ninjago Angst Week.)
1. Betrayal

**AN: Hey, everybody! This fic is for Ninjago Angst Week on Tumblr. It will consist of seven short fitting-in-canon stand-alone pieces, one a day for the rest of the week, each written for an angsty prompt. This first one is written for the prompt "betrayal," takes place between seasons one and two, and focuses on Lloyd. I hope you enjoy!**

* * *

Curled up on the hotel couch, Lloyd stared out the window. He was tired, tired in body, tired in mind, tired in heart, just plain tired. Saving Ninjago from the Great Devourer had taken a lot from him. Yeah, it had taken a lot from all the ninja, but Lloyd felt, maybe a little selfishly, that it had taken the most from him.

His dad had helped them, had destroyed the Great Devourer, and had saved the city, but then he had disappeared without a trace with the Golden Weapons. Lloyd felt sold out, double-crossed, even betrayed or... What were some other words that meant the same kind of thing?

Lloyd thought for a moment, trying to remember when Cole had gotten Zane to list off similar words to "betrayed" so Cole could use them to describe how he felt when Jay ate the leftovers Cole had been saving for an after-workout snack. What had they said? Oh yeah, swindled and hoodwinked, Lloyd felt those too.

His dad had been so close to turning to the side of good, or at least not being quite so bad, Lloyd thought sadly. All he would've had to do was give the Golden Weapons back, or even leave them somewhere the ninja could find them. But he didn't. The fact was that Lloyd's dad had saved the city, sure, but he hadn't stayed, and honestly, sometimes Lloyd wasn't sure which one he cared more about, Ninjago City or his relationship with his dad.

Lloyd scrunched into himself more, thinking sourly that it actually didn't matter which one he cared about more, Ninjago or his dad, because he would never get a choice. He'd always have to save what everyone else told him to save.

So Ninjago was saved, but Lloyd's dad wasn't. Everyone else got what they wanted, but Lloyd didn't. It was how life went.


	2. Nightmares

**AN: This one is written for the prompt "nightmares," focuses on Zane, and takes place between seasons four and five. Note, I don't really know whether Titanium!Zane needs to sleep, but honestly, I don't care, let me have my angst. :P**

* * *

Nindroids don't dream. It's a fact that Zane has been certain of for a long time. He's had visions of the future while sleeping, yes, and the occasional strange memory feedback that might resemble a dream, not mention the odd mirages of the Titanium Dragon before he unlocked that power, but no real dreams. So no, nindroids don't dream.

They do, however, have nightmares.

* * *

In the past days since the ninja and the Elemental Masters defeated the Anacondrai Cultists with the final blow dealt by Sensei Garmadon's sacrifice, the ninja had been helping Wu get his new tea shop idea off the ground in between helping out various villages with problems such as petty thieves. It was good work but hard work, and it sent each of them to their beds in the Destiny's Bounty 2.0 each night happy but exhausted to sleep soundly through the night.

It sent each of them to sleep soundly, that is, except Zane, for the fact was that ever since things had settled down after the battle with the Anacondrai Cultists, Zane had been waking up multiple times from nightmares in the middle of the night each night, and this night was no different.

Zane stared at the ceiling above his bed, fighting off the flashes of the nightmare he had just had. It had been pretty much the same as every other nightmare from every other night as it concerned the battle with the Digital Overlord and ended... Well. The way that it had ended in reality. Zane tried not to even think the words "death" or "explosion" or any of their synonyms, as the simple action of thinking of the word had the tendency to force him to instantly relive those moments, relive the certainty and the fear, relive the pain and the contentedness, relive it all each night, or even during the day, and it wasn't just those words that brought it all back. Hearing the sound, or even worse, seeing the image, of an explosion from one of the video games the ninja played or movies the ninja watched in their free time could affect him. The words "ninja never quit" or "go ninja, go" could affect him. Someone jokingly referring to the fact that Zane had a different body now could even affect him, and no one ever noticed.

Granted, it wasn't like being affected did all that much to him other than battering his already heavily damaged mindset, and the other ninja were already worried about Lloyd's mental state with having recently had to send his own father to the Departed Realm, and Zane wouldn't have wanted the others to notice anyway, but it hurt for some strange reason that no one could tell he was hurting.

No one could tell. Hmmm.

No one could tell what was going on with him, because it was all in Zane's own head, his own programming, his own code. So why not fix it somehow?

Closing his eyes, Zane focused inwardly, intentionally thinking about his temporary death. The memory came forward instantly, but as it started to play in his head, Zane seized it and began wrapping code around it, programming a self-adjusting vault that would create its own locks and mechanisms to keep the memory from ever resurfacing. As he worked, he kept tabs on the memory, and as it played through over and over, he could sense less and less of it. His coding was working. Soon, it was out of his reach.

Satisfied, Zane opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling again. Intentionally, he thought about the end of the battle with the Digital Overlord. The coded vault in the back of his mind twitched, but remained shut. Zane adjusted the outer layers of programming and tried again, specifically thinking of his own explosion.

Nothing happened. No reactions came from the vault. No memories sprung forward to cause him pain. Nothing happened at all.

That was good. That had to be good. Despite some lingering uncertainty, Zane decided to call that good.

Zane closed his eyes, ready for a peaceful night's sleep at last, but with a touch of doubt he tried to chase away with self-reassurances. The vault wouldn't cause him any problems. It couldn't.

* * *

 **AN: Aaaand then Decoded happens. Oops.**


	3. Scars

**AN: This one is written for the prompt "scars," focuses on Nya, and takes place before even the pilots.**

* * *

Nya had learned a lot of things: how to talk, how to walk, how to dress herself, how to feed herself, how to make friends, how to make change for customers. But the one thing Kai refused to let her learn was how to create the things they sold. She begged him over and over, but he wouldn't give in.

"C'mon, Kai, you've been doin' it for years, why can't I?" Nya would plead.

"Because I say so, and I'm in charge," Kai would say stubbornly, and then he'd take all the tools that Nya had been eyeing and keep them with him even when he wasn't actually using them so that she couldn't sneak them away and figure out how they work. He would even lock the furnace and the cabinets holding their metal shipments and keep the keys in his pocket.

Finally, Nya actually got a real answer out of him after she'd prodded and poked him all day, both with words and with whatever she could find, from her own hands and feet to the broom and dustpan. She prodded and she poked and she pestered and pestered and pestered, and eventually Kai shouted out, "Because you're my little sister and I'm s'posed to protect you!"

Nya stared at him, then she burst out laughing. Putting down the broom she had been poking her brother with, she asked, "Protect me from what?"

"From, you know. The fire and the hammers and the, the, the weapons and all that," Kai said.

"And when have you ever got hurt from that stuff?" Nya wondered.

Kai had to stop and think about it for a moment. "Uh... I haven't, not in a while, but when I was teaching myself based on everything Dad ever said, I burned myself and cut myself a bunch."

"But I won't be teaching myself. You'll be teaching me. And I won't burn or cut myself, I know better than that," Nya stated. Before Kai could get mad over the fact that she acted like she knew more than he did, she added quickly, "I won't get hurt, 'cause you never get hurt."

"One day I'm gonna get hurt, you know that, right?" Kai asked. "Blacksmithing isn't easy."

"'Course it isn't. Doesn't mean I can't do it, so when can I learn?" Nya insisted, slowly and teasingly picking up the broom and brandishing it at him again.

Kai batted the broom away and told her, "Never."

"Maybe one day?" Nya pleaded. "Maybe maybe maybe? Maybe maybe maybe maybe maybe maybe maybe maybe-"

"Fine, whatever. Maybe one day," Kai said over her, turning away.

Nya grinned.

"But I don't think 'one day' is ever gonna come," Kai muttered under his breath. "Ow!"

Nya had poked him in the back with the broom, hard. "Heard that!"

* * *

Unfortunately for Kai, 'one day' came just a few days later, when Kai was working on a new shovel for one of the local farmers. Nya was tossing a ball up in the air and catching it and tossing it and catching it over and over while she watched for customers, so she didn't see exactly what happened, but she heard a soft thud, then a yelp, then a much louder thud and a clatter.

Nya caught her ball one more time, then she turned to see what Kai was fooling around with that was making those noises.

The ball fell out of her hand and rolled away, completely forgotten as Nya stared in horror.

Kai lay sprawled across the floor on his back.

The shovel head he had been presumably carrying across the room was next to his head.

Blood was gushing from his face.

Nya didn't know how long she stood there, staring in shock and panic, before she shook out of her daze and rushed to her brother's side, but it felt like an eternity.

Running to kneel next to Kai, Nya thought quickly. What was she supposed to do? Well, when she scraped her knees after falling while playing Tag, Kai had cleaned her up and put pressure on the gashes before bandaging them up. She guessed something similar would be the best idea.

Nya hurried to the bathroom and wet down a washcloth, grabbing the whole box of bandages. It had been hard to tell with all the blood how much he was actually cut, so the more bandages, the better. Running back to Kai, Nya began wiping his face with the wet washcloth, sticking out her tongue as she concentrated on getting her brother's cuts cleaned and pressed on. The blood slowed from a gush to a flow to a trickle finally to an ooze from the cuts, but Nya wasn't so worried about that now that she'd seen what the damage was.

The cuts went right over one of Kai's eyes. Would his eye be okay? More importantly, why wasn't he moving? Was... Was he dead?

For several heartbreaking, stomach-clenching moments, Nya was certain she no longer had a brother, then she caught sight of his chest, which was rising and falling steadily. So he was alive. ...For now. She faintly remembered something from a movie she'd once seen that when somebody's head got hurt, that was a lot harder to heal from when other parts of the body got hurt. Would Kai stay alive? Would he recover? Would he be okay?

Nya started to tremble, and tears began seeping from her eyes, but she kept cleaning her brother's face until the blood was barely even coming out, then she began bandaging Kai's head. She went around and around with the bandages she'd grabbed until there were no more bandages left in the box. Then she sat and waited, watching her brother's chest rise and fall, rise and fall, rise and fall.

"I'm sorry I stepped on your toy car and broke it," Nya said miserably. Kai couldn't hear her, he wasn't awake, so she didn't know why she was talking to him, but she kept going. "I'm sorry I called you a stinky-pants for not letting me have more dessert. I'm sorry I borrowed your favorite pants and got a hole in one of the knees. I'm sorry I stole your toothbrush and pretended it was a sword and accidentally dropped it in the mud. I promise, I'm gonna be the best little sister ever from now on, but you gotta wake up. You gotta wake up. I'm not allowed to make the stuff for the store, remember? You still have to teach me that. You have to teach me, so you've gotta wake up. You've gotta! You've gotta, you've gotta-"

"...Nya?" A voice mumbled, interrupting her. Kai!

Nya's eyes flew from Kai's torso to his face. His unbandaged eye was open, and it was looking at her.

"Kai!" Nya practically sobbed, and she engulfed him in a hug.

"Nya," Kai groaned weakly. "I got, I got a question for you."

Nya nodded tearfully. Anything he wanted, she'd agree to it, because he was alive and he was gonna be okay. "Uh-huh?"

"Did you really drop my toothbrush in the mud?" Kai asked.

Oh.

"Uhhhhh. Yeah," Nya admitted.

Kai snorted. "So that's why it was so dirty yesterday. I thought there'd been a dust storm inside the bathroom. You dropping it in the mud makes a lot more sense."

Nya laughed a little through her tears, and when Kai started moving to sit up, she helped him get seated.

"Why's my head hurt so much?" Kai asked. "I'm guessing that's why it's all bandaged up, but I don't know why it hurts."

"I think you tripped on something, and then you fell, and the shovel head you were carrying over to the workbench flew up in the air and fell down on your face. You got all cut up. I thought you were gonna die!" Nya exclaimed.

Kai looked down with his unbandaged eye at the shovel head next to him. "Huh. Back of my head hurts too, but that's gotta be from falling. And you got me all covered it bandages?"

Nya nodded.

"Good job," Kai praised, grinning, then he grimaced. "Ooo, that hurts, smiling hurts, not gonna do that again any time soon. ...Not gonna be doing much of anything again any time soon, I guess. It'll be hard to do things with only one eye not covered in bandages."

"So how are we gonna keep the store going?" Nya wondered. "We've got orders that aren't done, and there's gonna be more before your face gets better, I bet. What do we do?"

Kai looked at her. "If I could smile without hurting myself, I'd be smiling right now. Do you still wanna learn how to blacksmith?"

Nya's eyes went big and round. "Really?"

"Really," Kai confirmed. "We can start right now. Bring the shovel head over to the workbench, then come back here and help me get up."

In the next few days, Kai taught Nya everything he knew about making weapons and armor and all the other things their shop supplied. Soon enough, Nya was able to take his bandages off, and thankfully, Kai's eye was fine. Kai himself was fine as well, with only some of the cuts scarring. Nya was okay too, but sometimes she found herself watching Kai closely, making sure his chest was still rising and falling, making sure his eyes were still darting around, making sure Kai was still alive and well. The experience of thinking she had lost her brother had terrified her, and she knew she would never forget the fear that had coursed through her in those few moments when she wasn't sure if Kai would make it. It would stay with her forever as a deep inner scar.


	4. Heartbreak

**AN: This (admittedly short) one is written for the prompt "heartbreak," focuses on Kai, and takes place between seasons seven and eight.**

* * *

This wasn't happening. It couldn't be real. It had to be false. This wasn't happening. The nurse had to be lying, she had to be lying, she had to be!

Kai could feel his heart pounding ever faster in his chest. He could feel his blood rushing through his veins. He could feel his breath shuddering in and out of his lungs. On shaky legs, he stood to stumble forward, intent on pulling the truth from the nurse. But he couldn't move. His feet were made of lead, his legs were made of iron, he couldn't force himself to move.

A hand was gripping his arm tightly, a hand he recognized the weight and shape of to identify without looking to see, Nya's hand. He looked to her. Her face was ashen, her mouth pressed into a firm line, her eyes squeezed closed. She had a death grip on his arm.

A death grip. Death. Passing away. Didn't make it. They didn't make it. The nurse's words.

"I'm afraid Ray and Maya didn't make it."

It was true. Nya's face proved it. It was true.

And in that moment, Kai could feel his heart break in two.


	5. Bad Habits

**AN: This one is written for the prompt "bad habits," focuses on Cole, and takes place between seasons two and three. Possible warning for poor coping skills involving exercise and food? Yeah, definite warning for that. I made myself sad with this one.**

* * *

Throughout his life, when bad things happened, Cole knew where to turn for comfort. He would throw himself into exercising. In working out, he got a mood boost from the adrenaline. Furthermore, working out distracted him enough that he could push down on and ignore his negative emotions about whatever situation he was in. Maybe it wasn't the healthiest coping mechanism, at least in the "repressing emotions" part, but it worked well enough for him that he didn't see a need to change it. It got him through failing the Triple Tiger Sashay, it got him through the countless times his father tried to improve his dancing skills and made that disappointed face when it didn't work, it even mostly got him through the loss of his mother, although that one still hurt at inconvenient moments. Exercise kept Cole going.

So when the Digital Overlord was defeated at far too high a cost, Cole turned to exercising. He lifted weights, he climbed mountains, he went for long runs.

But it didn't help. None of it could help.

Zane was missing. Zane was gone. Zane was dead. Zane, one of his best friends, one of his brothers, part of his family, had exploded and all they had found to bury was half of his face. It was too much to bear, too much to push away, too much to work through. That much was evident to Cole, and it seemed to be evident to his remaining brothers (and how much that hurt to think, that he didn't have all of them anymore) as well.

Kai started fighting in underground rings. Jay signed a contract for a TV show. Lloyd tried to keep it together, tried to keep them all together, but it was obvious the kid was hurting and didn't know what to do. The same was true for Nya, who kept patrolling as Samurai X and kept trying to talk to them, but if the tension between Jay and Cole hadn't already been high, the fact that they'd lost their brother in battle elevated it to new extremes. Sensei Wu lectured them about the importance of remaining a team when things got rough, but even his wisest words didn't help.

Slowly but surely, they drifted apart. Kai moved out with the money he'd won from fighting, and Jay did the same with the advance from his TV show. Lloyd and Nya begged them to stay, but they were all in too much pain to make things work.

As for Cole, exercise alone didn't do it anymore, but he'd stumbled across something that, in combination with working out, could at least distract him. One day after working out for hours, he took a jog through Ninjago City and his attention was grabbed by a smell, the smell of good food, the kind that Zane would make. Used to make. Cole followed his nose to a buffet and got in line. The never-ending supply of food kept his mind and his hands occupied for the rest of the day, and he kept eating until closing time.

And that was that. Between exercising and eating, Cole filled his days, spending less and less time with Lloyd and Nya. Eventually, he moved out as well, finding a job that offered a place to stay. That it was a lumberjack position that involved lots of hard physical work and fed him well made it all the better. He knew he should've stayed, should've tried to keep everyone together, should've found ways to help them all heal, but he couldn't do it. He just couldn't do it.

What he could do, it seemed, was find his comfort from food and physical training instead of his family. Maybe it wasn't the greatest habit to be in, but it worked. It kind of worked. It sort of worked. It worked enough to keep him from thinking about Zane, and that was all he needed.


	6. Fears

**AN: This one is written for the prompt "fears," focuses on Jay (without actually including him, whoops), and takes place between seasons six and seven.**

* * *

"Do you guys think Jay's been acting... Weird lately?" Lloyd asked quietly the moment Jay and Nya were out the door and on their way to the restaurant they had a reservation at for the evening.

"Jay always acts weird. He's Jay," Kai stated, laughing at his own comment.

Zane frowned. "I believe Lloyd has a point. Jay's behavior has changed substantially recently, and only some of it may be properly accounted for by the fact that he and Nya have re-entered a relationship."

"You think so?" Cole wondered, then he nodded pensively. "I guess I could see it. I mean, he does keep watching those Fritz Donnegan videos over and over, way more than he usually would."

"That's not so weird," Lloyd argued. "Fritz Donnegan is amazing. I'm talking more about the way he keeps twitching when we suggest playing video games."

"Is it the video games, or the fact that I keep beating him soundly at that new 'Genie-In-A-Bottle' game?" Cole pointed out. "It's like he isn't even paying attention to the game, he loses so badly."

Kai hummed thoughtfully. "He has been acting kind of weird. Remember how he freaked out when we brought that thief to Kryptarium Prison to get locked up? Jay was on edge the whole time, but Nya wasn't too happy either, so maybe they'd just watched a movie about a prison riot or something."

"Jay has recently visited his parents approximately two-hundred-and-seven-point-five-five percent more frequently," Zane offered. "I feel that is a significant factor."

"Maybe he just misses them more right now?" Lloyd suggested. "What's really weird is how he keeps bribing me into doing his chores for him."

"He is doing what?" Zane asked, eyebrows furrowing.

"Okay, you didn't hear it from me, but Jay's been paying me to do the chores Wu assigns him," Lloyd said all in a rush. "But not all the time! Just mopping the kitchen, mopping the deck, mostly a lot of mopping, to be honest."

"It's possible he just doesn't like mopping," Cole pointed out, frowning. "Of course, he never used to mind it."

"So he's watching a lot of Fritz Donnegan, he's twitching when Cole beats him at 'Genie-In-A-Bottle,' he doesn't like Kryptarium prison, he's going back to the junkyard a lot, and he refuses to mop. That... That doesn't mean anything to me," Kai admitted.

"I have run the list you just reported through my database for possible connections, and I found nothing," Zane added.

"I might have one more thing," Cole said slowly.

Lloyd, Kai, and Zane looked at him inquisitively.

"You know how the remote stopped working out of nowhere?" Cole said, wincing. "Well, Jay and I were watching TV, and this celebrity wedding came on, and a whole bunch of electricity sparked out of Jay's hands into the remote and it short-circuited."

"Do you remember what celebrities were getting married?" Lloyd asked. "That might be important."

Cole shook his head. "Nah. All I remember is somebody spilling punch on the bride's dress and everybody losing it over it, because the punch was this neon green color. Could that have anything to do with it?"

"I don't think so," Kai responded.

"Then I've got nothing, unless the fact that he's stopped joking about wanting that awesome eyepatch means anything," Cole sighed.

"I've got nothing too," Lloyd added.

Kai nodded. "Ditto here."

"I know of nothing that could have caused this eclectic batch of desires and fears," Zane agreed.

"We could ask him about it," Lloyd suggested.

"And have him refuse to answer, like how he and Nya both refuse to answer when any of us ask them why they're back together?" Kai pointed out. He shook his head. "Jay's fine. He's just nervous and on-edge because he and Nya are finally dating again and he doesn't want to screw up, I bet. He's not actually afraid of any of the things we mentioned."


	7. Comfort and Healing

**AN: This one is written for the prompt "comfort/healing," focuses on all the ninja, and takes place between seasons five and six. Thank you all for reading this story!**

* * *

It had been a rough fight. The ninja had been patrolling, searching for trouble and occasionally waving at and taking pictures with fans, when Cole had spotted a woman stealing a man's wallet. They given chase and the pickpocket had lead them away from the main streets, which the ninja had first presumed was because she was scared, but that presumption had soon been proven wrong. It had turned out that while the pickpocket was just one person, the gang that she worked for and whose headquarters she was running for had quite the amount of members. The numbers were definitely in the gang members' favor. The ninja had subdued them for long enough for the police to arrive, but it wasn't easy. All of the ninja had sustained injuries if only to their pride, setting them on edge, and they bickered heatedly as they made their way back to the Destiny's Bounty 2.0.

"Maybe if you hadn't been yelling stupid battle cries the whole time, the other gang members wouldn't have realized there was a fight going on and we could've taken down the first group before the rest of them rushed us," Kai was saying crossly as they boarded the flying ship.

"You were yelling too!" Jay defended himself, gesturing emphatically. "And besides, if you hadn't taken the time to Chirp that we were fighting a gang, you wouldn't have gotten caught by surprise by that guy with the sword."

"My Chirp was how the police knew to come help!" Kai replied.

"Actually, I believe the fact that I sent them a message as the fight became more difficult was what alerted them, given that the Commissioner thanked me for doing so when he arrived," Zane piped up.

Kai scowled, turning his leftover fight adrenaline from Jay to Zane. "Yeah, well, if you weren't calculating and calling out the number of gang members that were still fighting every fifteen seconds, maybe you would've been more help to-"

"Hey, you're one to talk about help, Kai, given you never stayed with the same opponent and just kept them occupied long enough for one of the rest of us to knock them unconscious or take over for you," Cole interrupted.

"That was actually helpful!" Kai protested.

Cole shook his head "no" exaggeratedly.

"No, Kai was helpful, you're just mad because you lost your concentration that one time and forget to stay solid so your weapon fell right out of your hands," Nya said flippantly, stepping between Kai and Cole.

"It's not my fault I'm a ghost! Besides, Lloyd was the one who distracted me by running right through me," Cole insisted.

"Hey!" Lloyd objected hotly, frowning. "I only did that because Jay-"

"Enough!" A voice called out above the squabbling.

The ninja looked as one to see Wu standing in the doorway.

"You are all on edge from what was obviously a difficult battle and are not thinking clearly. Your enemy is not each other. It never should be," Wu explained. "You should know this by now."

The ninja looked between Wu and each other, recognizing the truth in his words.

"Now, most of you appear wounded. Go to the living room and wait for me. I will bring the medical kits," Wu ordered before turning on his heel and exiting the room.

Trudging to the living room, the ninja exchanged remorseful glances, not sure of how to mend the emotional gashes they had just tried to tear in each other.

Kai was the first to speak. Looking at his feet as he leaned against the wall, he stated, "Sorry for picking on your battle cries, Jay."

"It's okay. I should've realized you were trying to alert the police and defended you while you were busy," Jay replied.

Shaking his head, Kai admitted, "I was mostly just trying to get a bunch of likes. Zane was probably the one who really alerted the police. Speaking of you, Zane, sorry for accusing you of not being helpful."

"You are forgiven. Do you want me to not calculate the number of enemies we have to fight still?" Zane asked.

"Nah, it's actually pretty helpful to know how many we still have to defeat," Kai dismissed before turning to look at Cole. "Was I being unhelpful by just keeping the gang members occupied?"

Cole shook his head. "It was helpful. It kept a large number of them busy until the rest of us could defeat the other gang members. Nya was right, I was mostly upset I lost my concentration and dropped my weapon."

"But you were right too," Nya added. "It's not your fault you have to spend some of your attention on staying solid. I shouldn't have spoken so lightly; I know being a ghost is still new to you and a sore subject. I'm sorry."

"It's fine," Cole stated.

"And I'm sorry my path took me right through you," Lloyd apologized to Cole. "I didn't even see you with how dark the alley was, but that doesn't make it much better."

Shrugging, Cole responded, "It actually doesn't hurt me or anything, it's just really weird."

"I can't even imagine how weird that must be," Lloyd said, then, with a little laugh, he asked, "Is it weirder than that gang's theme?"

"Definitely not," Cole answered. He made a face. "What would you even call that kind of theme?"

"Clowns crossed with cattle," Zane said immediately, as if it was obvious.

The other ninja looked at him.

"They had the garish rainbow color hues and large shoes often associated with comic performers such as clowns, added to the spotted pattern typically found on cows as well as imitation bull's horns on their helmets," Zane explained.

"I mean, you're right, but there's no quick, punchy way of saying that," Jay said slowly.

Kai nodded. "Normally we fight people with themes that are easy to describe."

"Zane described the gang's theme easily enough," Nya pointed out.

Kai gestured at her playfully. "But could you?"

Nya paused and thought about it for a moment, before saying triumphantly, "Oxentertainers. Like oxen and entertainers at the same time."

"Cowing and clowning," Jay suggested.

"Bulls and buffoons," Lloyd said with a laugh.

"A herd of harlequins," Cole added.

Kai frowned. "I'm pretty sure you just made that last one up."

"Harlequin is a synonym for clown," Zane offered.

"Well, you learn something new every day," Kai said with a straight face. "Like that one gang member learned that you can't hit a ghost who doesn't want to be hit without special equipment."

"Yeah, his face was priceless. Being a ghost is almost worth it just for that look of surprise," Cole said, chuckling, and the others joined him in laughing.

It was at that moment that Wu came into the room bearing a first-aid kit. Setting the kit down on the coffee table, he looked around at the giggling ninja and smiled, stating, "I came here with the medical supplies to heal your physical wounds, uncertain of how to get you to heal each others' emotional wounds. It would appear I did not need to worry, as you seem to have already done that healing on your own."


End file.
